Dutch Wagenbach

Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach is a fictional character on FX Network's hit drama The Shield. He is played by actor Jay Karnes.

File:Jay Karnes.jpg

Jay Karnes as "Dutch Wagenbach" on The Shield

Character Profile

Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach is a socially inept, but extremely successful police detective assigned to the Farmington District of Los Angeles. Often the first called to investigate violent crimes due to his specialization in criminal profiling and serial killers, Dutch deals with the type of regular criminals that are overlooked by the gang-centric Strike Team.

Despite being one of the more dedicated detectives at the Barn, Dutch is generally treated as a pariah or "rube" by the rest of the precinct. Part of this goes towards Dutch's general lack of social skills while the rest of the scorn and mockery comes from the details of his rather messy divorce from his wife. Dutch's wife was an alcohalic and after forcing her into rehab, his wife promptly began a sexual affair with her AA sponsor, becoming pregnant by him, and leaving Dutch for her new lover.

Out of all of the characters on "The Shield", Dutch is the one of the few characters that has had details revealed about his personal life. During season one, Dutch finally catches a serial killer after several episodes chasing him by sheer luck when the killer is caught masturbating near the scene of one of his murders. During his interrogation of the killer, the criminal sought to turn the tables on Dutch by asking private and humiliating questions about his personal life. What was revealed was that Dutch grew up in the Midwest and that he was bullied relentlessly as a child by other children. The killer also forces Dutch to reveal that he has a very strained relationship with his father, who generally considers Dutch to be a failure and that Dutch became a police officer mainly in order to try and win his father's respect. It should be noted that shortly after this, Dutch forced the serial killer to confess to his crimes.

Relationship with Fellow Officers

Dutch in not well liked around the Barn. Many of his fellow officers consider Dutch to be an over-educated nerd who thinks he is better than the rest of the officers at the Barn. In particular, Dutch has a very heated rivalry with Detective Vic Mackey. Dutch considers Vic to be nothing more than a brutish thug for the way that he uses violence as his catch-all solution for any problem he faces. This in turn has caused Vic to openly bully Dutch in public, mocking his social ineptness with women and accusing him of being an intellectual snob who considers the other cops at "The Barn" beneath him.

The two have engaged in a back-and-forth war over the course of the show, though Vic has conceded to Dutch on several occassions that Dutch is as smart as he claims to be. Indeed, Dutch may be the only cop in the Barn who truly scares Vic, in terms of potential to bring the Strike Team down if he ever put his mind towards the goal. This fear of Dutch going after the Strike Team became most notably during the Money Train Heist arc, when Dutch began to close in on the Strike Team for their part in the heist. Vic openly showed fear that Dutch would not stop until he caught the Strike Team and tried to intimidate Dutch into dropping his investigation by threatening to resume his bullying of him.

Dutch's investigation of the Money Train hesit would ultimately trigger, months later the tragic series of events that led to the death of Vic's close friend Detective Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. Dutch told IAD Lt. John Kavanaugh (who was investigating the Strike Team) about the money train heist and how he suspected but could never prove that Vic was the mastermind behind the heist. Using this knowledge, Kavanaugh and Councilman David Acaveda tricked Vic and fellow Strike Team detective Shane Vendrell into thinking Lem had turned against the team. This led to Shane going behind Vic's back and murdering Lem in order to protect himself from being arrested.

Dutch also has a intense dislike for fellow Detective Steve Billings and the two have come to blows at least once. Billings will take any opportunity to humiliate Dutch, privately or publicly, but will often turn to Dutch to cover up a mistake or illegal activities (such as purchasing vending machines for the Barn to use inside the precinct in order to turn a profit, which was expressly against department rules). Recently the two were partnered up by new Captain Claudette Wyms on the basis of the fact neither of them were currently assigned a partner, much to Dutch's horror. The act made for much tension due to Claudette replacing Billings, who was acting Captain prior to her getting the job. The fact that Claudette has shown a great deal of favoritism towards Billings over Dutch due to Billings making a rather large stink about the way he lost his job also gets on Dutch's nerves.

Dark Side

Because of his unhappy childhood and his treatment as a pariah amongst his fellow detectives, it has been shown that Dutch carries around a great deal of anger at the world which he keeps bottled up inside him. Often, when he has been put through a great deal of stress or frustration, Dutch has been known to unleash these darker urges often in very public outbursts.

Dutch's dark side became most notable during season three in a controversial sequences where Dutch kills a stray cat just to see how it feels to murder another living thing, and in several other episodes he has cruely taunted criminals who refuse to confess or who try to use mind games against Dutch.

Relationships

Dutch’s only true friend is his partner, Claudette Wyms. The two have a rather complex and symbiotic relationship: Claudette uses her emphatic touch to counterbalance Dutch's detached psychological means of solving violent crimes while Dutch is able to keep Claudette grounded emotionally so as to keep her from letting her personal grudges and vendettas keep her from seeing the big picture towards their jobs as detectives.

Because of Claudette’s determination to do the right thing, no matter the cost, Dutch has at times paid the price for his loyalty. For a time, Dutch found himself subjected to a sort of blacklisting by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, who made it clear to the LAPD that any criminal case that involved Dutch and his partner Claudette would not be prosecuted by the DA's office. As a result, two were demoted to working minor criminal cases for over six months before newly appointed Captain Monica Rawlings confronted the DA's office and threatened them to remove the blacklisting of the two officers.

Furthermore, it has been hinted at that Claudette may be the person responsible for a series of pranks pulled against Dutch that have occurred throughout the series, including stealing junk food he had brought to work with him, leaving dog feces in his desk, and rigging his chair to fall apart on him. When confronted by Aceveda, Claudette silently confirmed Aceveda's suspicions that Claudette too felt that Dutch was too smug regarding his intelligence and that her pranks were a way to keep her partner humbled. While Dutch has no idea that Claudette is behind the pranks, his rival Vic Mackey has gone out of his way to fuel office speculation that he is the one behind the pranks instead, which has fueled the hatred Dutch feels towards Vic.

Dutch also makes a habit of mentoring younger officers to whom he is attracted. Dutch was initially quite attracted to officer Danny Sofer and made little effort to hide the fact. Taking advantage of his attraction, Danny would manipulate him into helping her attempt to pass an exam that would have resulted in her promotion. After Danny rejected his advances one night after visiting her home to help her prepare for her exam, Dutch lingered long enough to see his nemesis Vic Mackey arrive and passionately kiss Danny. (Dutch's response, "You've got to be shitting me!" quickly became a popular catchphrase for fans of the show and has become a running gag during the show's run used by various characters when they witness something shocking).

Dutch would ultimately call her out on her manipulation in front of the rest of the Barn, when Danny tried to schedule another study session when Dutch was in the middle of an investigation of a recently murdered child. Dutch showed a shocking amount of cruelty towards Danny, calling her a selfish, manipulative tramp and mocking her for the insensitivity she was showing by asking him to help her while he was in the middle of a murder investigation. The two would eventually settle their differences and apologized to the other for their respective bad behavior. The two have since become good friends, though ironically, Danny later found herself developing feelings for Dutch only to find that he moved on.

As for Tina, Dutch was openly attracted to her from the beginning of her duty at the Barn. He would come to her defense on several occassions where her inexperience resulted in mistakes. When semi-nude photographs of Tina began circulating around the Barn, Dutch personally began to investigate who was the source. Much to his surprise, Acting Captain Steve Billings had installed a camera in the locker room and had carelessly left the photos on his desk. Billings, who knew of Dutch's attraction to Tina, begged Dutch to help him settle things with her before she could file a possible sexual harrassment suit. Ultimately, he pushed a plan to have Dutch begin mentoring Tina and having Danny and Officer Julian Lowe's attempt have Tina dismissed from the force over-ruled in exchange for her silence on the photos. When Claudette found out about the deal upon becoming Captain, she quickly tried to negate the deal Billings reached. But upon realizing that doing so would potentially destroy Dutch's career as well, the arrangement was allowed to stay. Realizing that the deal might make Tina smug in terms of manipulating him, Dutch coldly told the rookie cop that she would not be given special treatment and that she would have to prove she was worth Dutch giving up his time to mentor.

Dutch has also dated Corrine Mackey for a period of time during the fourth season. The two dated behind Vic's back and despite the innocent nature of their relationship, Vic accused Dutch of dating his ex-wife just to spite him. When Corrine confronted Dutch about this accusation, Dutch commented that spiting Vic played a small part in his pursuing her but that he saw that she was doing the same thing as well. The two have since stopped dating, but have remained close friends, much to Vic's horror. When Corrine found herself becoming a target of Lt. John Kavanaugh's IAD investigation of the Strike Team, Corrine turned to Dutch for advice. Dutch told her to just tell the truth, a move that led to Corrine revealing to Kavanaugh that Vic gave her $65,000 several months prior to take care of their special needs kids. Dutch also suggested to Corrine that she do whatever possible to curry favor with Kavanaugh, on the belief that cooperating would lead to Kavanaugh being willing to not follow through with his threats to indict Corrine as an accomplice in her husband's crimes.

Dutch's relationship with IAD Lt. Jon Kavanaugh was also complicated when Kavanaugh forced Dutch to help him investigate the rape of Kavanaugh's ex-wife. In spite of Kavanaugh using bullying tactics to force Dutch to obey his demands, Dutch did seem willing to help Kavanaugh's investigation of Vic and the Strike Team. It was Dutch who alerted Kavanaugh towards the Money Train Heist and Vic's involvement in the robbery. He personally offered to hand over to Kavanaugh his personal notes outlining the evidence he uncovered linking the Strike Team towards the heist but the relationship turned sour when Dutch learned that Kavanaugh's ex-wife, Sadie, had a history of mental illness. Kavanaugh reacted violently towards Dutch bringing up the subject, throwing him against the bathroom wall when Dutch innocently asked about it.

When Dutch ultimately realized that Sadie had faked being raped, Kavanaugh refused to believe him and ordered him to continue to work over a local sex offender Sadie had identified as her attacker. Though Kavanaugh ultimately was forced to realize Dutch was right about his wife faking her sexual assault, Dutch has yet to follow through with his offer to assist Kavanaugh as a result of his negative experience working with him.

Future At the Barn

Dutch has often forgone possible promotions to be able to stay partnered with Claudette. He once turned down a chance to replace Monica Rawlings as Captain of the Barn because of his loyalty to her and partly out of the later validated belief that his superiors only offered the job to him because they felt that Dutch was spineless and as a result, controllable.

He also turned down an offer to transfer to the LAPD "Robbery-Homicide" division, which Dutch commented once was his dream assignment. He later learned however, that the offer was negotiated by Claudette, who wanted to get rid of Dutch so that he would not have to worry about his partner, who had long suffered from lupus and had recently experienced a debilitating flare-up.

When Claudette fell down a flight of stairs at the Barn and her condition suddenly became public knowledge amongst the higher ups at the department, Claudette furiously accused Dutch of being the one who told them. However, it was Billings who had revealed the information instead and though she later apologized, their relationship would never be the same. Dutch would request a transfer a few days later, partly because his new assignment with Billings but also because he was no longer with his long term partner. However, his transfer was denied in the wake of Lemansky's murder, with Claudette stating “I need my best detective on this.”